Concession would make fuel economy standards easier for large trucks (Source: Dodge)

Concession would reduce the yearly increase rate for new standards for large trucks and SUVs to 3.5% per year

The Obama administration wants to significantly
increase the CAFE standards that govern fleet wide fuel economy for automakers.
The problem is that there is a huge amount of backlash from those in the
automotive industry. The backlash is so far keeping the Obama administration
and automakers from coming
to an agreement on proposed fuel economy standards moving into the future.

The Obama administration has put aconcessionforward
in an effort to woo the Big 3 automakers to agree to the economy standards. The
concession would see the makers of big trucks and SUVs forced to move to the
higher fuel economy standards at a much slower rate than makers of cars and
light SUVs. Hopes are high that the agreement between the Obama administration
and the Big 3 will be made by early next week.

Washington wants the CAFE requirements to beset
at 56 mpgby 2025. The concession would allow the Big 3 to adopt
the CAFE standards for the larger, gas guzzling vehicles, at a rate of 3.5% per
year rather than the 5% annual improvement rate that the Obama administration
wants for light trucks, cars, and light SUVs.

CAFE standards are currently targeting 35.5 mpg
fleet wide by 2016 and that number will grow to 56 mpg by 2025 under the
proposed regulations. The final rules are hoped to be ready by September.

However, automakers outside the Big 3 are not
happy at all about the proposed concession. Carmakers that do not produce large
SUVs and trucks see the concessions as giving the Big 3 an unfair advantage.
The companies feel that the concession would encourage consumers to buy less
efficient vehicles.

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There's potentially a HUGE gap between what politicians and environMENTALists want and what can actually be done. You go ask a long haul truck driver if he'd wanna drive an electric truck... He'll laugh in your face. Why? no power in the things and the range is horrible.

They had electric vehicles in 1913 but they were so heavy they couldnt climb a 5% grade! Now the current versions have other problems with heat, cold, range, top speed, charge time, and power (the towing kind). So what do you do? hook that up to a gas engine! yeah cause that wont be a total failure or anything nooo.

I live in an area that has lots of hybrids... the traffic is horrible. Morons driving down the road and slamming on the breaks at green lights cause they think it might turn yellow. Driving down the highway at 55 in a 65 so they can conserve fuel... in the fast lane.

This is where things that the government wants diverge greatly from whats possible... you try getting an 80,000lb load across the country in 4 days on batteries. You cant do it. You try towing a 20,000lb load up a 20% grade with a hybrid truck... cant do that either.

So the liberal ecoMENTAList agenda forces the rest of us to live under THEIR rules and suffer for it... and when someone says hey that might not have been a good idea look at the crap that happened (i.e. e85 ethanol causing food prices to go up) they get demonized. typical.

Um, you do realize the rail industry has been using hybrids for ages, right? One thing electric motors have is an abundance of torque for pulling things. The diesel makes around 3200 horsepower which turns the generator, which in turn powers electric motors which provide 64,000 lbs of torque.

If you want to get a good idea of what can be done with current electics, take a look at the White Zombie (plasmaboy racing): 1250 ftlb of torque, around 400 horsepower, low 10's in the quarter mile, and he can still get over 100 miles of range on the highway. That all fits in a datsun, and if you're going to try and tell me it can't or won't scale up, you need to put down the kool-aid and give your head a shake.